So the record of my life seems to be missing a few days. ( Read more... )

The 3rd was a Thursday, and that meant Farmers' Market funtimes for all. ( Party planning. )

I arrived at Tif's later than I had planned due to getting timesucked in Target, but I made up some of that time by driving rather than BART-ing. People were there, we watched many lovely things, including MythBusters (MIXING PEPPER SPRAY AND FIRE IS THE BEST IDEA EVER YOU GUYS, OMG) (JD showed up at the end of that, so we'd timed it well, as he doesn't particularly see the attraction of the show: he must be missing the EXPLOSIONS ARE COOL gene), and then there was chili, and Glee, and strawberries-and-cake-and-whipped-cream. And Doctor Who. And we were watching Doctor Who while Asterix the Basement Cat watched figure skating on YouTube on jamoche's iPad. And midnight hit, and the funtimes were still proceeding, strawberries and cream and fun and yay.

It was awesome. The love from the internet started pouring in full-steam about then, and omg, you guys, you really amazingly know how to make someone feel generally adored. ♥ Thank you all.

( Party planning, redux. ) I picked up the rest of the party and we showed up. Socialization, meeting-the-dogs, hilarity, refrigerator magnets, gossip, and dinner preparations ensued. raranax was making this GORGEOUS cake, although the beginnings looked slightly dubious at first, being a small slab of very flat cake.

Dinner was bread and vinegar and oil, salad, collaborative pizza building, and finally, the cake.

♥ ♥ THE CAKE. ♥ ♥

There were 13 candles: 30 candles on the tiny cake was not particularly practical in this case, and they matched, and in any event I am in some cases 30 going on 13. (I believe in IRC the usual claim is that I am in fact a 13-year-old boy, or at least I have the sense of humor of the same.)



There was some hemming and hawing about singing, but in a bit the singing commenced. Then Tif and my cousin busted into the Birthday Dirge. "There are 30 more verses!" someone chirped, after the first verse or two. However, I blew out the candles instead, after having thought of a wish. My breath was barely big enough; I hadn't inhaled with that in mind. But I made it.

The cake was fabulous. FABULOUS. Imagine a heavenly combination of whipped cream and Nutella, except slightly more substantial and not potentially gross. ♥ ♥ ♥

Then there was Cranium, and general hilarity, and cleanup. We all left around midnight; I asked my aunt about plans for the next day; she said that she'd come by to pick me up around 10:45. It was an excellent birthday.

( Then zip! )

Rather than driving to L.A. and dealing with the road and traffic and all, we were to be flying, and flying on my uncle's plane. This was my first experience with it, and the smallest plane I'd been on. I enjoyed it (and took notes); the major differences mostly involved not dealing with airport security, the safety briefing (brief), being able to see the cockpit and see out the front, getting serious gadget envy about the aircraft-grade Garmin GPS-plus-assorted-instrumentation unit, and the side-to-side as well as up-and-down turbulence. Oh, and the seeing-out-the-front led to a moment or three of sheer terror as we landed the first time, because I'm only used to seeing the ground at an angle out the side windows, not seeing the ground at quite that angle out the front.

( La la la family party with exactly five people I knew. )

Airplane seats and I have reached a treaty of mutual loathing. Both of us are vexed. Airline safety videos can be unintentionally funny. It would be utterly hilarious to, say on an appropriate day such as April 01, replace an airline safety video with something with the same safety information content but more ... creatively ... presented. Also, boozin' is evidently for pilots on the airline I just flew!

I packed fewer sets of clothes than I had days away, and I still overpacked, but as some of them were used as packing, it was all for the good.

I come by my temper honestly, both from Grandma's side of the paternal line and GrandfatherSir's side of the paternal line. Grandma is my only surviving grandparent.

One of the aunts dug up a pamphlet on V.D. from 1971. Several copies, in fact. Once the scanner is operational, a copy will be shared. I was of the opinion that it would be a good thing to print up and distribute on college campuses as if serious -- novelty vintage sex-ed!

Even when I am not trying to, I accumulate books. I was vexed that Dad took the local copy of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I wound up reading that cover to cover, then reading the story about the Mother of the Bride from It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It to Aunt-Fayoumis.

Geezerite. Everything's more funny with volcanic eruptions.